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Third-wave feminists, those who like Gloria Steinem think boys should be raised like girls and girls like boys, are all out of focus.

My brilliant co-author Julie Coates says the only thing women should be concerned about is gender pay equity in the workplace. Two issues that get us to gender pay equity, according to Sweden the country with the most gender pay equity, are healthcare (including both maternity and paternity leave) and mandating 50% of elected officials be women.

But we see third-wave feminists all over other issues that just don't get us there, including:1.Preventing boys from fidgeting2.Getting girls into STEM occupations3.Young women's dress in the workplace4.Gender identity and preference5.Why men don't go into nursing (really)6.Pushing mothers on Father's Day (happened in 2016)7. Lack of women in (name an occupation)....and many more minor issues, even non-issues, totally irrelevant and distracting from the central issue: gender pay equity.

Once when Julie was in a store, a mother with a girl and boy was trying to get the boy to follow them out of the store by commanding, "Focus, Jeremy, focus." Jeremy and all other boys cannot focus.

It is the first and only all-male public high school in the United States.

And the African-American boys there, most from low income families, cannot get suspended, no matter what they do. After the first year, the high school, in Washington DC, has a waiting list. Here's the USA Today story on the school.

The boys wear uniforms, work out behavior in class circles, and their learning and GPA goes up. Naturally the ACLU, instead of a court case against schools for gender bias against boys, is arguing in court that helping low achieving African American males is against the law.

That was a quote from the NYTimes covering a story on the U.S. getting left behind as Europe and Japan just concluded a big trade agreement.

But could it be said in general about the U.S. being left behind in the 21st Century?

Europe at least, and many other post-industrial advanced countries as well, have:1.Healthcare2.High speed Trains3.Some have better Internet connections4.Some are starting to surpass the U.S. in college graduates

We have said anything a country does Before January 1, 2020 sets it ahead in economic prosperity in the 21st century. And every day after Jan 1, 2020 without it sets a country further behind. Right now it looks like the U.S. has lots of catching up to do.

The U.S. will remain a world power in the 21st century. But will it be THE world power like we were in the last century? Doubts persist.

Trumpeter Swan is the largest bird in North America by weight. They have increased ten-fold in the last five years in Wisconsin, now you see them all over. A beautiful sight. NineShift photo last month.

A new world leader emerged last week, Margrethe Vestager, Europe's competition chief.

In case you are keeping score (I am) this is the third woman from Europe (Angela Merkel; Christine Lagarde) whose influence is now global, especially with respect to the United States.

The story is that the European Commission has fined Google $1.2 billion. Google is in essence a monopoly for search in Europe, with 90% of the market. The thornier issue, says NYTimes' Mark Scott, is how Google can comply moving forward with Europe's regulations.

And the big NineShift trend we see is that of Europe telling U.S. companies how they have to behave in Europe. And then if U.S. companies have to follow Europe's rules in Europe, why not just follow the same standards in other countries. That is, Europe is having and will have a huge influence over corporations, U.S. or not, in this century.

Here's the best news article of 2017 so far.lauren Herstik's NYTimes story on Los Angeles, "A City Famous for Sprawl Chooses to Fill in the Gaps," has at least these five reasons to make it my choice for the best story of the year, so far.

Number 5. "A pedestrian culture."LA officials and Herstik understand that 21st century cities have walkable neighborhoods, with mixed zoning (housing, office, shops all together, often in the same building)

Number 4. Tax increase for mass transit.This is how light rail will be funded to serve a city for the rest of the century.

Number 3. Fill in the gaps"Anything near a transit stop will become viable and attractive" says realtor Nelson Rising. "I see a series of many urban centers along the transportation corridors." Yes Yes Yes

Number 2 A Mayor's VisionMayor Garcetti says, "These are moments to inspire and connect. We should seize that moment." He understands this is a history-making pivotal point in time for cities in this century. He even is thinking about a "starchitect" to redesign the city, just like Daniel Burnham did with Chicago 100 years ago. Burnham said, "Make no small plans." Garcetti gets it.

Number 1 "Car was king."This is the first article we have seen where the reporter refers to the automobile's dominance in the past tense. You will see more writers saying it from now on. But Herstik is the first. She writes about Mayor Garcetti,"He hopes....to engage Angelenos at street level in a way the city never had to when the car was king."

This is why go canoeing: to see river otters. They have several 'looks.' The best is when they crawl on top of a log.Took this last month, so a good summer already with wildlife: swans, bear swimming, otters. Try to listen and see if you can hear their snorting. That's another fun feature. Enjoy.

Once in a lifetime (mine anyway) experience. A black bear comes out of the grasses and swims across the river right in front of my canoe. Happened this summer. The bear knows I am there, but crossing the river more important, so he basically ignores me.

Trumpeter Swans, the biggest (by weight, equal in wingspan to eagles) fowl in North America, have made a huge comeback population-wise in northern Wisconsin, where I vacation.

*See if you can see the babies, maybe only a week old, in this video I took a few weeks ago. *Listen to the swans' sounds. Sounds like a trumpet. Which is where they get their name.

The other two kinds of swans in North America are tundra swans, which usually just pass through on their way to and from the tundra of the Arctic Circle; and mute swans, which are imported from Europe and destroy the vegetation here.

PS: The water is blue. It looks green because of the reflection from the woods.